Nanette Laitman

MUSEUM OF ARTS & DESIGN ANNOUNCES LEAD GIFTS
TO CAPITAL CAMPAIGN FOR NEW BUILDING PROJECT

Two Donations Totaling $22 Million Together with other Funding
Place Museum Past Halfway Mark in $50 Million Campaign
To Bring Two Columbus Circle Back to Life as Dynamic Cultural Center

New York, NY, April 2, 2003—The Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) today announced two major private donations to the Capital Campaign for its new home on Columbus Circle from New Yorkers who have long been deeply committed to supporting the cultural and educational life of the city. Simona and Jerome A. Chazen, Chairman Emeritus of the Museum’s Board and Chairman of its Capital Campaign, gave $12 million, and Nanette Laitman, President of the Board, gave $10 million to the Museum. Totaling $22 million, these gifts together with funding already committed bring MAD past the halfway mark in its $50 million campaign for the new building program.

The Capital Campaign for MAD’s future home was launched in June 2002 when the Museum was selected by The New York Economic Development Corporation (EDC), on behalf of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, to redevelop Two Columbus Circle with the goal of bringing a vibrant cultural resource to the area.

“We are tremendously grateful to Simona and Jerry Chazen and Nan Laitman for setting this extraordinary example in civic and cultural leadership, a tremendous step in realizing the Museum’s long-range vision of having a home that can properly support the display of its extensive permanent collection, special exhibitions, and educational activities,” says Holly Hotchner, Director of the Museum of Arts & Design. “Their incredibly generous donations provide a strong foundation for the Museum’s future as a vital cultural and educational resource for generations to come.”

In November 2002, the Museum of Arts & Design selected Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture to design its new home on Columbus Circle. Construction is slated to begin spring/summer 2004 and be completed in 2006.

“The field of craft is expanding dramatically, and the Museum plays an increasingly important role in exploring how today’s artists and designers engage and experiment with different materials and approaches to making expressive objects,” comments Jerome A. Chazen, Chairman of the Capital Campaign of the Museum of Arts & Design. “The Museum will be a new source of personal enrichment and inspiration for the entire city and the nation.”

“In its new facility at Columbus Circle, the Museum will be able to present its world-renowned permanent collection of art objects in its entirety for the first time,” adds Ms. Laitman, President of the Board of the Museum of Arts & Design. “It is an enormous pleasure to help this great vision become a reality, and to contribute to the realization of an architecturally distinguished building that projects the institution’s mission as a Museum dedicated to materials and their transformation into art objects, and enables this institution to significantly enhance its service to the community.”

ABOUT JEROME A. CHAZEN AND NANETTE LAITMAN

Jerome A. Chazen and Nanette Laitman are dedicated New York philanthropists and longtime supporters of the arts. They have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the city’s cultural, educational, and social service institutions.

Mr. Chazen is involved with a wide range of educational, cultural, and business organizations.

He is a Trustee of Columbia University and Chairman Emeritus of the Board that oversees Columbia Business School. Mr. Chazen is also the Founder and Benefactor of the Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business at Columbia Business School.

Mr. Chazen serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and is a member of the Board of Directors of the 92 Street Y. Mr. Chazen is Managing Director of the Metropolitan Opera Association and Chairman of its Finance Committee. He is also Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Greater New York Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and a Trustee of the National Jewish Center of Immunology and Respiratory Medicine. Mr. Chazen serves on the Board of the Louis Armstrong House & Archives at Queens College in Flushing.

Mr. Chazen is the Founder and Chairman of Chazen Capital Partners, a private investment firm. He is also Chairman Emeritus of Liz Claiborne, Inc., and one of the four founding partners who established the Company in 1976. Prior to joining the venture that would become Liz Claiborne, Inc., Mr. Chazen worked as an analyst on Wall Street and spent the following 16 years in retailing.

Mr. Chazen and his wife, Simona, have three children and five grandchildren and live in Upper Nyack, New York. They are avid art collectors and jazz enthusiasts.

Nanette Laitman serves on the New York Weill Cornell Council and is one of the founders of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a Trustee and Managing Director of The William and Mildred Lasdon Foundation, which focuses on support of medical research and the arts. Ms. Laitman was pivotal in launching the Nanette Laitman Document Project for Craft in America at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art and spearheaded the construction of the William & Mildred Lasdon Memorial Garden at Lasdon Park in Westchester County, New York.

Under Ms. Laitman’s direction, the Lasdon Foundation has participated actively in capital campaigns for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Public Library, The New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Ballet.

Ms. Laitman attended Colby College in Waterville, Maine and is an enthusiastic collector of ceramics and contemporary furniture.

ABOUT THE NEW HOME FOR THE MUSEUM

At Two Columbus Circle, the Museum will be able to respond effectively to a dramatic expansion of the field, a significant increase in visitorship, and an overwhelming response to its public programming in recent years. Over the past five years, the Museum has experienced a nearly 100% increase in attendance to 275,000 visitors annually. Critically acclaimed touring exhibitions organized by the Museum, combined with off-site educational and community outreach programs, effectively double the audience served annually to over 500,000. The Museum is deeply committed to building on its success and overcoming space limitations that have impeded its ability to meet public demand for its wide-ranging educational programs and initiatives.

At Two Columbus Circle, the Museum of Arts & Design will more than triple its space to 54,000 square feet from 17,000 square feet in its present location. The Museum’s exhibition space will increase fourfold. For the first time since its founding in 1956, the Museum will be able to present and expand its permanent collection of over 2000 art objects, including ceramics, fiber, glass, metal, paper, wood, mixed media, and design–one of the most distinguished collections of its kind in the world. MAD will also double its gallery space for the display of special exhibitions organized by the Museum and other national and international arts institutions.

The new facility will provide the space needed to accommodate the Museum’s new Arts & Education Center, a full-service education facility that will feature classrooms and studios for programs tailored to school children, families, adults, and seniors. The public will have the opportunity to see artists at work and learn about different creative processes and techniques first-hand through Master Classes, Artists in Residence, and Open Studio programs. Programming will also include a greater range of lectures, seminars, decorative arts and design history courses, and workshops. In addition, the Museum will use a renovated 155-seat auditorium and theater located on the lower level of its new building to showcase different cultural events in collaboration with New York City’s premier performing and visual arts organizations, demonstrating today’s interactions among all art forms.

The new facility will also enable the Museum to establish the Center for the Study of Arts & Design. A state-of-the-art resource for learning, it will be the first international center for the study of primary source material. The Center is conceived as a link between electronic media and information technologies and three-dimensional hand made objects.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS & DESIGN

For nearly half a century, the Museum of Arts & Design–formerly the American Craft Museum– has served as the country’s premier institution dedicated to the collection and exhibition of contemporary objects created in craft media such as clay, glass, wood, metal, and fiber. The Museum celebrates materials and processes that are today embraced by practitioners in the fields of craft, art and design, as well as architecture, fashion, interior design, technology, performing arts, and art and design-driven industries. The institution’s new name reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of the Museum’s permanent collection and exhibition programming as it explores objects that are created at the crossroads of craft, art, and design.